Viewpoint: Confederacy-related names hold immense influence in Virginia
Only a week ago, a school district became the pioneer in undoing previously approved name changes by reversing their decision. Board members who were in favor of undoing the initial change argued that it was done in reaction to 2020 protests, and the individuals championing the change had taken advantage of the Covid tragedy to push this change through with limited public input.
The pace of reconsidering America's racist history and present has dramatically accelerated. Notably, several corporations have cut their budgets for diversity and inclusion programs, and Republican-led states have mandated the removal or shrinkage of university diversity and inclusion offices. Books authored by Black people are being banned in many schools, and teachers in certain areas have been forbidden from discussing racial inequality.
In terms of its significance, the rescinding of a school’s name may not seem like much. However, the reinstatement of Confederate names indicates that there's been a resurgence of redemptive politics, and none of the progress from the past decade is beyond question.
Bestowing honors on Jackson and Lee is an act of Confederate nostalgia, regardless of where it takes place, and in Virginia, this act carries an additional potent political weight. Stonewall Jackson High School, which opened in 1959 as an all-White school, flaunted its defiance of the Supreme Court's ruling in the Brown v. Board of Education case, declaring that segregation was unconstitutional. In the aftermath of Brown, most school boards across Virginia chose to shut down schools altogether instead of admitting Black students. Placing Jackson's name on the all-White school sent an apparent message about the school's intended recipients, even after some Black students were enrolled several years later.
Twenty-five years after the creation of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Virginia White residents again focused on Jackson - and Lee. They chose to fuse him with Lee instead of honoring King with his own stand-alone holiday. King was part of a shared state holiday since 1904, combining Lee and Jackson's names. Thus, Lee-Jackson-King Day, the most awkward holiday in the United States, was born.
The disparity in memorializing a Black civil rights leader with these two Confederate slaveholders was too severe to tolerate by 2000. After several municipalities discontinued commemorating the holiday, the state assembly dropped Lee-Jackson Day.
The presence of Lee and Jackson statues in Charlottesville's city parks has also significantly influenced recent initiatives to promote racial healing in Virginia. Both men's statues had been in place since the 1920s, erected by White townspeople, in concert with the Ku Klux Klan, to intimidate the city's Black population.
In January 1959, just prior to the opening of Stonewall Jackson High School in Shenandoah County, Virginia's governor ordered the closure of two Charlottesville schools rather than desegregate. They resumed operation under court order in February 1959, but many of the schools' White students left for segregated private schools.
Nearly a century after the Confederate statues were erected in Charlottesville, in response to a teenager's petition, the Charlottesville City Council voted in February 2017 to expunge the statues of Lee and Jackson. The parks they stood in became known as Emancipation Park and Justice Park.
However, the backlash was fierce. The city witnessed a spate of racially-charged protests, with neo-Nazis, neo-Confederates, and Klan members organizing and clashing with antiracism activists. The violence continued, accompanied by court battles, which ensured that the statues remained in position until 2021 when the Supreme Court ruled that a state law restricting the removal of war monuments didn't bar the city from removing its statues. Last year, the Lee statue was dismantled and melted for recycling.
The controversy surrounding the monuments' fate in Charlottesville was deeply intertwined with policy battles over housing fairness, positive access to education, and income inequality. While this could be seen as purely symbolic, it was, in fact, intrinsically linked to a broader policy vision. Moreover, these landscape markers symbolize the image of the people and the community being striven for.
Thisstatement perfectly encapsulates the scenario in 1924 when the statues were erected to portray White dominance; in 2017 when the parks were renamed to honor emancipation and justice; and in 2018 when the council edited the park names merely to be non-controversial (now known as Market Street and Court Square).
Each evening, they cast photos of Floyd and other Black liberation champions onto the memorial. The figure was ultimately taken down and shifted to the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia.
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The Shenandoah County School Board comprehends this and has reclaimed the names of Jackson and Lee. By naming the schools after the Confederacy, they have rekindled the commemoration of enslavement and rebellion and White supremacy that have always been at the core of any act honorable to Confederate generals. In doing so, they have supplied a warning: the process of racist rejuvenation is well in motion in the United States, and growing in potency and self-assurance.
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In the current debate, some individuals believe that reversing name changes of Confederate-related institutions is a way to reclaim historical heritage. However, critics argue that this action indicates a resurgence of redemptive politics and challenges the progress made in recent years.
Despite the controversies surrounding Confederate statues and monuments, the significance of opinions on these matters cannot be overlooked. The names we choose for our institutions reflect our values and how we perceive our past, and they shape our collective memory and identity.
Source: edition.cnn.com
